998 research outputs found
The consequences of social movements: taking stock and looking forward
No full textCitizens of both democratic and authoritarian countries seem to become less supportive of those in power and more willing to use non-conventional forms of collective action for putting pressure on authorities. This was the case, for example, during the past few years, with the major upsurges of protest, in Eastern Europe (Coloured Revolutions), in the Middle East (Arab Spring), in Southern Europe (the Indignados in Spain, the Agonaktismenoi in Greece), in the United States (Occupy Wall Street), in Chile (the Pinquinos), as well as anti-government protests in Hong Kong, Thailand, and South Africa. Such waves of mobilization, comparable in their size to those of the 1960s and 1970s, bring to the fore some important questions for social movement research and call for a deeper understanding of social and political change: When and how does mobilization make a difference? When and how do activists achieve their goals? Is protest a necessary and/or sufficient condition for producing social and political change? Do social movements have any long-term legacies on our societies? Do they change the life choices of those participating in protest activities? How does all this vary both across contexts and across different movements?
These and related questions are not new, but until the 1970s scholars paid little attention to the consequences of social movements as protest was mainly regarded as an irrational action with no instrumental goals (Buechler 2004). Since then, also thanks to some pioneering works (Gamson 1990; Piven and Cloward 1979; Schumaker 1975), a new research field emerged slowly and allowed one of the present authors to note as late as in 1998 that “we still lack systematic empirical analyses that would add to our knowledge of the conditions under which movements produce certain effects” (Giugni 1998: 373). The field was revamped, amongst other things, also thanks to two edited collections entirely devoted to the study of different kinds of the effects of social movements (Giugni et al. 1998, 1999). This sudden focus on social movement outcomes could be related not only to the wave of democratization in the Eastern Europe and Latin America in the 1990s, but also to the fact that sufficient time had passed from the mobilization of the 1968 generation in Western Europe and civil rights mobilization in the United States
Explaining youth radicalism as a positioning of the self at opposite extremes
No full textThe concept of ‘young radicals’ is gaining ground in a context of generalized discontent – often, this is due to the fact that young people engage increasingly in unconventional forms of political activism. Much less is known about young people holding radical political attitudes. This article advances our understanding of those young people who place themselves on the extremes of the ideological scale and investigates how those with radical right attitudes differ from those with radical left ones. Drawing on a survey that gathers data from nine European countries, with a sample of young people aged 18–35, we test those factors that have been used to explain why people use violent repertoires of action: social background, gender, political values, and prior experience in protest activism. The results relate ‘radicalness’ to experienced economic difficulties and the more contentious political activism. The difference between the young ‘radicals’ in right and left are, however, defined by gender and adherence to authoritarian values.The concept of ‘young radicals’ is gaining ground in a context of generalized discontent – often, this is due to the fact that young people engage increasingly in unconventional forms of political activism. Much less is known about young people holding radical political attitudes. This article advances our understanding of those young people who place themselves on the extremes of the ideological scale and investigates how those with radical right attitudes differ from those with radical left ones. Drawing on a survey that gathers data from nine European countries, with a sample of young people aged 18–35, we test those factors that have been used to explain why people use violent repertoires of action: social background, gender, political values, and prior experience in protest activism. The results relate ‘radicalness’ to experienced economic difficulties and the more contentious political activism. The difference between the young ‘radicals’ in right and left are, however, defined b..
Collective Action Outcomes : Ways Forward for the Subfield
No full textGiven the growing interest in how collective action matters, this special issue seeks to push our understanding of collective action outcomes beyond the present state of knowledge and stimulate further developments. In doing this, it looks to improve and expand the theoretical and conceptual tools for studying the topic, suggest and explore methodological innovations to solve previous research problems and investigate new settings across various movements and countries
The Outcomes of Social Movement
No full textOver the last decade there has been an increased focus on social movement outcomes. This increased attention has led to calls for the improvement of our theoretical and conceptual arguments, the more effective implementation of methodological tools, and more empirical examples based on broader comparisons of issues and contexts (Giugni 1998; Earl 2000; Burstein and Linton 2002; Meyer 2005; Giugni 2008). With this special issue of Mobilization, our aim is to take some steps toward meeting these calls. Each of the contributors in this issue adds an important aspect to the current literature and introduces themes that we hope will be developed further in future research. We have included articles emphasizing several issues, including incremental outcomes, novel empirical factors for studying the contextual dependence of the outcomes of mobilization, different methods for strengthening and testing the robustness of our theoretical arguments, and new ways of thinking about the role of public opinion. Our introduction develops a foundation for the contributions contained in this special issue by stressing the connection between the five articles and laying out a few important achievements and problems in studying the outcomes of social movements. Finally, we briefly sketch several directions for future research
The Consequences of Social Movements
No full textSocial movements have attracted much attention in recent years, both from scholars and among the wider public. This book examines the consequences of social movements, covering such issues as the impact of social movements on the life course of participants and the population in general, on political elites and markets, and on political parties and processes of social movement institutionalization. The volume makes a significant contribution to research on social movement outcomes in three ways: theoretically, by showing the importance of hitherto undervalued topics in the study of social movements outcomes; methodologically, by expanding the scientific boundaries of this research field through an interdisciplinary approach and new methods of analysis; and empirically, by providing new evidence about social movement outcomes from Europe and the United States
sj-docx-1-asj-10.1177_00016993231204215 - Supplemental material for Political icon and role model: Dimensions of the perceived ‘Greta effect’ among climate activists as aspects of contemporary social movement leadership
No full textSupplemental material, sj-docx-1-asj-10.1177_00016993231204215 for Political icon and role model: Dimensions of the perceived ‘Greta effect’ among climate activists as aspects of contemporary social movement leadership by Mattias Wahlström and Katrin Uba in Acta Sociologica</p
pp5_online-appendix – Supplemental material for Constituency Groups of Alternative Action Organizations During Hard Times: A Comparison at the Solidarity Orientation and Country Levels
No full textSupplemental material, pp5_online-appendix for Constituency Groups of Alternative Action Organizations During Hard Times: A Comparison at the Solidarity Orientation and Country Levels by Katrin Uba and Maria Kousis in American Behavioral Scientist</p
Outcomes of Social Movements and Protest Activities
No full textScholarship has left the study of the consequences of social movements in the
background for a long time, focusing instead on movement emergence, characteristics,
and dynamics. Since the mid-1970s, however, scholars have paid an increasing interest
in how social movements and protest activities may produce change at various levels.
The existing literature can be ordered according to the kind of consequence addressed.
In this regard, one can roughly distinguish between political, biographical, and cultural
outcomes. Political consequences are those effects of movement activities that alter in
some way the movements’ political environment. Biographical consequences are
effects on the life course of individuals who have participated in movement activities,
effects that are at least in part due to involvement in those activities. Although their
contours are less easily defined, cultural outcomes can be seen as the impact that social
movements may have in altering their broader cultural environment. The bulk of the
existing works have dealt with policy outcomes, which can be considered as a
subcategory of political outcomes. Biographical outcomes are less numerous, but they
form a substantial and quite coherent body of literature. Cultural outcomes have been
studied much less often. More recently, scholars have started to investigate the effects
that social movements and protest activities may have on other aspects of society, such
as the economy and market-related institutions, or on other movements. In addition,
one should also consider the distinction between internal and external outcomes as well
as that between intended and unintended consequences. Both distinctions partly crosscut
the typology of political, biographical, and cultural outcomes, although one might
think of political outcomes as mostly external and more intended, biographical
outcomes as mostly internal and unintended, and cultural outcomes as both internal
and external and mostly unintended
Discarding protests? Relating crisis experience to approval of protests among activists and bystanders
No full textTo what extent does the economic crisis affect support for political protest? Since the outburst of the financial crisis in 2008 many protests have been mobilized against national governments and their austerity policies. In some countries, these actions were described in the media as having little support among the general public, while elsewhere these actions enjoyed significant public support. Surprisingly little scholarly work has examined this variation. We fill this research gap by investigating who approves of austerity protests, how bystandersâ attitudes differ from the activistsâ approval of protests and how repertoires relate to the approval of austerity protests. The analysis uses original survey data from nine European countries affected by the recent economic crisis at varying degrees and demonstrates that protest experience, both at the country and individual level, relates to approval of anti-austerity protests. The severity of economic crisis increases is positively related to protest approval in general terms, but there are differences depending on the type of grievances and which forms of austerity protests are considered
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